


Stay With Me

by Evietan



Series: Alien Invasion AU [3]
Category: DCU (Comics)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Alien Invasion, M/M, lots of feels in this one
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-24
Updated: 2015-04-24
Packaged: 2018-03-25 13:47:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,504
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3812785
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Evietan/pseuds/Evietan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>From the destruction of Krypton to the aftermath of the invasion, this is Kon's story. Or Conner's.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Stay With Me

**Author's Note:**

> I got way too carried away with this, I never intended for it to be this long... I tried to make it accessable for those who haven't read the first two parts, but some points will have a lot more impact if you have read the other two. This is the great conclusion, after all. They are also combined about half as long as this one, which gives you a good perspective about how disproportionally long this got...  
> In conversations where both Kryptonian and English is spoken, Kryptonian is marked in cursive.

Kon watched with mixed feelings as Kal-El died.

 

He owed this man everything. The process of artificial birth on Krypton was complicated and never properly explained to him, but he knew he was born a worker, one of the lower classes. Not too much energy had been put into his creation, he was not required to be as intelligent or strong as other castes. His name was simply Kon, as workers did not do anything worthwhile that would justify the membership of a House. He'd been assigned the role of a servant in the House of El as soon as he reached the minimum age for light labor. He remembered how scared he'd been back then, away from everything he knew, supposed to work for a House of renowned scientists.

 

But they were nothing but kind to him. Especially Kal-El, the young heir, had taken a liking to him and generously shared luxuries meant only for the higher classes with him. Even when Kon reached the age where he usually would have been sent away to conduct hard physical labor, Kal had arranged for Kon to stay with them.

 

Then Jor-El found proof of Krypton's core being unstable and built a shuttle for his son, niece and wife so they could survive and build Krypton's population anew. But Lara had opted to stay with her husband at the last minute and without a second thought, Kal had pulled Kon in with them.

 

Kon had considered himself dead the minute he had heard what Jor-El had found out. The scientist had never been wrong, and even in case of emergency evacuation, the workers were likely to be left behind. Only thanks to Kal's incredible kindness was he rescued and given the chance for a new life.

 

Still, the moment he treasured most had been after Krypton's destruction. They had still been in the shuttle, feeling the shockwave from the explosion only as slight vibrations. Tears had been streaming down all of their faces, Kara pressing her face against the small window to see her home's ultimate end, Kon staring at his lap and Kal looking resolutely forward and gripping the steering wheel way harder than necessary in open space.

 

"They were stupid", he finally said, "Too obsessed with the old values. With this stupid caste system. If father had been a ruler _and_ a scientist, he could have simply ordered everyone to leave." He furiously wiped his eyes, trying to put up a face of strength and determination. "We're gonna rebuild Krypton. We're gonna make it _better._ There were too many stupid rules in the system. That's why it got destroyed."

 

Kal suddenly stood up from his seat and began rummaging through the supplies stuffed in the back. He pulled out a suit similar to the one he was wearing sans cape and with a slightly different design more fit to suit young people. Kon hadn't paid much attention until it was dropped in his lap. "Wear this."

 

He stared incredulously at the crest of the House of El printed clearly visible on the chest part. "Sir, I can't-", he began but was immediately interrupted by Kal. "You can and you will. And stop with the 'sir'. As of now, you're an official member of the House of El."

 

That made Kara finally turn away from the window. "Kal, are you sure? Isn't this against everything Krypton stood for?" The eldest of the group went back to gripping the wheel and staring into space. "No. Krypton stood for Order, Peace and Community. But there was too much order and community only existed in the Houses, not between them. And if a House is the expression of community, why did we leave so many of our people out of it? As if only some were entitled to the fruits of Kryptonian society. They always made these grand speeches about how every caste is important and necessary but then the ruling lived off of everyone else's work, taking privileges from the lower classes on a whim. Father found us a new planet to live on and gave us a chance to rebuild our society. We can't let that go to waste and just keep everything as it was. We'll just destroy the new planet and wipe our race out for good this time. No. We're gonna fix everything that went wrong last time. Back to the basics. We're Kryptonians. We live in Houses. We respect and support each other. _All_ of us."

 

It had only gotten through to Kon that this was real when he actually put on the suit and Kal called him by his new name for the first time, as he explained what exactly their plan was. Kon - no, Kon-El - was supposed to land on their new planet first. Jor-El's information was a little old, he needed to assess how far the life had already evolved and if they had any sort of intelligence and/or weapons that could be dangerous to them. Kara would ask for help on the sister planet Mars while Kal would look for others willing to fight further away from their new home. All three of them were to spend as much time as possible soaking up yellow sunlight, just in case.

 

Just like that, Kon had gained a family and a purpose, all thanks to Kal-El.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

His landing on Earth went a little rougher than expected. By the time he had managed to crawl out of the pod the other two had dropped him off in, two elderly humans had already curiously approached him.

 

Jonathan and Martha Kent, as he later learned, where probably the nicest humans he could have stumbled upon by chance. They took him in without questioning, taught him their language and how to plant and harvest the local flora to get enough food for survival and never even asked for anything in return.

 

He spent an entire year living with the Kents, steadily learning more about the planet and its inhabitants, about their culture, politics and history. In the end, he realized their civilization was not too different than the one on Krypton. Sure, a few major technologies had not been introduced/developed yet and there were many cultural issues - racism, sexism, religious intolerance - yet to be resolved, but overall, they seemed to be on the right way.

 

The most fascinating thing about them was for Kon how they dealt with sexuality. It was a taboo topic on Krypton. Sexual intercourse was seen as a fruitless distraction and only the weak indulged  in it. If anyone had been caught doing it, they were usually cast out from society. The higher classes lacked both the capability and the desire for it completely. If it wouldn't have been so time consuming stripping the embryos from everything sex-related, it would have been the same for the lower classes. Still, birth was for animals and so was sex.

 

In a culture as evolved as the human one, Kon would have expected intercourse to be seen as a necessity simply used until technology would be advanced far enough to replace it with artificial birth. Instead, its increasingly open enjoyment was seen as an achievement for society and attempts at developing artificial birth branded as evil and dangerous. It was even becoming more accepted to indulge in ways of intercourse not meant to produce children.

 

This puzzled him so much he worked up the courage to watch a few of the infamous 'porn' videos on the internet. Just out of curiosity. The result was incredible. His body had never reacted to anything else this strongly before. Of course, he didn't indulge - he couldn't disgrace the House of El that much - but his curiosity never subsided and he conducted more  research as time went on.

 

The only thing he never understood was why humans wanted to keep natural birth. It was dangerous and painful. And how did they live without knowing who they were and what they were meant to do? Just the concept of not knowing his place scared him so much it sent shivers up his spine.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

When Kal and Kara returned to pick him up, he told them about the level of human development, but Kal deemed it low enough to be considered savage. He had hired mercenaries from three different races across the universe and was not going to be stopped by philanthropy for uncivilized life. As Earth was not a planet recognized as civilized by the Green Lantern Corps, all of this was completely legal.

 

It didn't help the guilt when Kal dropped his acquired huge mothership right on top of Smallville, killing the people who had helped Kon without so much as a second thought. Still, Kal-El was his family, they knew each other for years and he had constantly put up a mask around the Kents. 'Conner Kent' was a lie, Kon-El his true self. And, he justified in his head, Kryptonians were developed further than humans, who still relied too much on instinct instead of logic.

 

But they weren't as stupid as Kal-EL had expected. They fought back swift and severe, not winning ground, but causing more damage to their troop than calculated, meaning they would run out of soldiers before they could conquer the whole planet.

 

With Kon's information, the cause was located quickly. Earth's forces were commanded by an incredibly talented general by the name of Bruce Wayne, who was also incredibly good at hiding. No photos of him existed, nobody really knew anything about him, except that he lived in Gotham.

 

So Kon dressed up as 'Conner Kent' once again, stumbling into the arms of the enemy troops with dirt smeared all over him, claiming to be a survivor who had lost his family but still had some distant relatives in Gotham. A Martian disguised as a human signed some papers and he was legally allowed to stay in Gotham and even attend school there. Of course he would still help with the invasion on the side, but finding Wayne took priority.

 

He had expected school to be a hindrance more than anything, but went anyway on a whim. But just as his luck was, he met yet another incredibly nice person right on his first day. Tim didn't know anything about him and didn't ask much, but freely shared stuff from his own life. What kind of food he liked, his newest discovery in video games, stories from his annoying little brother, sometimes even something about his dead parents, just whatever was on his mind.

 

In the process, Kon's fake persona became filled with life. 'Conner' liked doritos, preferred racing games and fantasy rpgs over shooters and puzzle games and was fascinated by everything they were taught in school, be it science, history, math or literature. Kon had never received an education, he was only taught what he needed for work, and the scientists he had lived with spoke in difficult terms they never bothered to explain to him.

 

Most importantly, 'Conner ' was on the best way to fall in love with Tim. And with each passing day, it became harder for Kon to distinguish between his two personas.

 

When Tim kissed him, he didn't even think about rejecting him. He knew the move and its implications from countless romance movies Martha had made him watch after work on the farm. It felt good to have someone appreciate him that much without any judgment for his actions or prejudices because of his caste. The little voice in his head telling him he was only deceiving Tim was pushed aside as far as possible.

 

He realized he liked Conner better than Kon around that time. Conner could make Tim laugh and his eyes glow, Conner could learn something new every day and get praised by his teachers for his eagerness and participation. Kon only caused fear and destruction and still got treated like air sometimes by his allies.

 

That was the reason he let the relationship with Tim advance, even as it got more physical. He had considered making up an excuse as to why he didn't want to have sex with Tim, but he realized it would just be an excuse. He _wanted_ sex with Tim. And as long as he didn't bring results concerning Bruce Wayne, nobody paid any attention as to what he did in Gotham anyway.

 

And once he had started, he saw why the humans didn't want to let go of it and why some Kryptonians still did it despite all the repercussions they faced.

 

Sex was _awesome._

 

For a while, all went well, and Kon fooled himself into believing he could keep this up. Until one afternoon Kara showed him around the new facility she was supervising where they would grow the new Kryptonians they were conquering this planet for. It was rather boring, as it looked exactly like the ones they had on Krypton, but then they stumbled upon a young human, obviously there to spy on their facilities.

 

He pressed a button on a small device attached to his belt, so Kara destroyed it with her heat vision without missing a beat, even slightly burning his fingers in the process. She lifted him up by the collar, a sneer on her face. _"What do you say, Kon? Do we kill him right here or do we bring him back to base to get some answers from him?"_

 

Kon was too preoccupied with the feeling that he'd seen the face somewhere before to answer immediately, but the spy was apparently over the initial shock and not afraid of answering. He spat out " Fuck you!" followed by actual spit placed unerringly on her face. Before Kon could even open his mouth, Kara had burnt two neat holes into the spy's chest, now holding onto a dead body dangling from her grip. She dropped him carelessly on the ground, leaving Kon alone with the corpse as she was off to wash that dirty, possibly filled with disease bodily fluid off of her.

 

Unsure of what to do, Kon let his curiosity win and began to search the body. He found a few weapons, all basically ineffective against them, but apparently enough to get through the guards. He also found a nametag on the inside of his shirt that read 'Jason Todd'. He surprisingly also had a rather large amulet out of blue Kryptonite with him, but it was still hidden in a leaden case, probably to avoid the radiation. Storing away the information that these were a thing now, he took the amulet. Seeing as he couldn't leave the corpse lying around here, he decided to bring it to the Martian stowaway girl they had put in charge of disposing of unwanted bodies. He knew she gave them somewhat proper burials and kept track of the names for all those they knew the names of. It seemed... right to give him that honor given how far he had made it and how brave he had been to the very end.

 

Still, he didn't think much of the incident until he came home to Tim crying. Tim had been hiding stuff from Kon as well, but that night he told him all about his two older brothers (though technically only one now as Jason was most certainly dead) and one older sister in the military, as well as his adoptive father Bruce Wayne.

 

That was when he truly realized he wouldn't be able to keep up his life as it was. And he needed to decide what side he was on ultimately. Soon.

 

Deep down, he knew already it just wouldn't work easily either way. He simply could not bring himself anymore to be Kon-El and slaughter humanity for the sake of the new Krypton without remorse. It would mean the death of anyone close to Tim and Tim himself, now that he was joining the military. But fighting on the side of humanity was simply hopeless. They wouldn't trust him or any information they received from him. And he stood no chance against Kal or (let alone and) Kara. He wasn't sure why, but his powers were a lot weaker than theirs no matter how long he stayed in the sun and some powers, like the heat vision, were missing completely. Probably because his genes as a worker were slightly different.

 

So he had to compromise. Technically, he argued, they didn't need the whole planet to ensure Krypton's society could be re-established. Maybe they could just take the country they were in already - it was pretty large, after all - and make a treaty with the rest of the world where they would leave them alone for some Kryptonian technology in return. In fact, all they would need to do was leave some reservations for the humans to live their old lifestyle in and paint themselves as the good guys coming to help humanity make progress and get accepted intergalactically a little and it wouldn't be far from what the humans themselves had done before. That worked out pretty well, after all.

 

But Kal-El was pretty obsessed with getting the whole planet and didn't see humanity as a species even remotely on their level. Kon needed to ease him into it. His greatest asset on that part was - ironically - Bruce Wayne. The man had managed over and over again to surprise Kal-El, and still nobody had been able to find him. Kon would probably be able to now, he had found photos of him and it would be easy to take Tim or Damian and force him to show himself, but Kal still didn't know that and if Kon had any choice in that matter, it would stay that way. Begrudgingly, Kal was slowly coming to respect the other general.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

When Tim found out who he was, Kon gave up Conner Kent. It hurt, seeing the betrayal on Tim's face and not being able to go back to Gotham anymore to share a laugh and an easy conversation, but in the long run, it would be better for Tim. Safer. He toyed with the thought of going back and explaining everything for a long while, but never actually had the courage to face Tim again.

 

Breaking the news of his failure to find anything on Wayne went over surprisingly easy. Kal nodded, placed a hand on his shoulder and told him it was fine, they would find another way to win and some other part of the plan where Kon could be useful.

 

While his plan of wearing down Kal was progressing, Kon also began to plan for other contingencies. What if Tim was found as a spy like his brother? What if they lost? What if Wayne made a horrible mistake that would make Kal lose all respect?

 

So when Kal-El died, he was prepared. He wasn't happy, he wasn't sad, he wasn't angry, he wasn't relieved. Or maybe he was all of that at once, he wasn't sure, but he was prepared, and his body acted out the plan he had come with practically on its own.

 

First of all, he followed the triumphant pilot back to base. Just as predicted, they were so overcome with joy that they weren't as careful anymore. He located Bruce Wayne at the base as well. Perfect.

 

Back at the ship, Kara had heard and seen via hologram what had happened. She was furious and hell-bent on revenge. Just as predicted. Kon told her where to find Hal Jordan and Bruce Wayne. While she took off, he took an extra few seconds to set the rest of his plan in motion, then followed her. Luckily, he wasn't lagging behind her in speed as he was in strength, so he arrived just a good thirty seconds after her.

 

Flying through the hole Kara had left in the ceiling, he came just in time to see a blonde man in a lab coat jump on Kara in a vain attempt to get her to let go of Jordan, whom she had lifted up off the ground by his collar, eyes already glowing as a threat.

 

Unfazed, she simply threw the scientist off against the wall, where he sacked to the ground with a rather loud 'thump'. "Barry!" Jordan redoubled his efforts to get out of her grip, eyes desperately fixed on the man lying on the ground.

 

 _"Look at me, you filthy worm! This is what you get when you hurt my family!"_ Kon pulled her back by her cape just in time for the heat vision to make two neat holes in the ceiling beside the big messy one they had come in through. Furiously, Kara whirled around. " _What are you doing, Kon? This is the asshole that killed Kal! I will obliterate him so that there will only be ashes left of his pitiful existence!"_

 

Kon moved as fast as he could, freeing Jordan out of Kara's grip - he had to rip shirt and jacket in the process, but he had no time for such details. The pilot landed rather ungracefully on his behind, but crawled over to the unmoving scientist as fast as he could, checking his vitals.  Kon knew the man was still alive, so he strategically placed himself in front of them. _"Leave him alone."_

Kara stared at him incredulously. When he didn't move, the anger settled back onto her face. _"Traitor!"_ she yelled, launching herself at him. Kon jumped towards her as well, so the impact only nailed him against the wall instead of smashing through it. Kara tried to burn his eyes with her heat vision, but Kon shielded them with one arm, using the other to pull out a case from his pocket and open it.

 

Shocked, Kara immediately stumbled backwards, but Kon followed right after, using the momentum to throw the Kryptonite amulet over Kara's head. He could feel the drain that made Kara's movements sluggish as well, but he pulled himself together and knocked her on the ground with a self-defense technique he had picked up from Tim, effectively rendering her unconscious.

 

 _"Sorry"_ he murmured. He looked around the room, finally assessing the whole situation. In front of him was a big table he didn't remember knocking over (maybe Kara had done it before he arrived?). On his left Hal Jordan was clutching the still unconscious scientist - Barry - in his arms, seeming ready to jump up and attack him anytime. And finally, on his right stood a group of other scientists as well as a few important looking military people, hiding behind less decorated soldiers who had pointed their weapons at him despite looking absolutely terrified.

 

The only one he recognized was Bruce Wayne, notably standing in front of two young soldiers instead of behind them. Those were Tim's siblings, he realized, Dick and Cassandra. All of them were wearing similar blue amulets, but they were so far away he barely noticed their influence. Besides, all but those worn by Wayne's children were rather small compared to the one he had put on Kara.

 

Time to move on with the plan. He pulled out another leaden case, pulling the necklace with the amulet slowly over his head while keeping his eyes trained on the group standing in the corner. Just as slowly, he lifted his arms up in what he knew was considered a gesture to express harmlessness amongst humans.

 

Kon took a deep breath. "I formally surrender Krypton's army to the joined forces of the Earth."

 

He could see the surprise openly displayed on all their faces. Only Wayne seemed to react with nothing but suspicion. He probably thought it was a trap. "Why? Are you even in command?" Kon automatically glanced sideways to where Kara was.

 

"Well... Technically she's in command, but if she was to be held captive by you or otherwise unavailable, I am." He gave them his best sheepish smile. "And I'm surrendering to avoid more deaths on both sides. This is a pointless battle."

 

Wayne scoffed. "What a nice revelation to have. So early on, too. Why shouldn't we believe you just wanted to take over and run away with your space army to renew it and come back stronger than before? Now that we have you here, why would we ever let you go again? Why would you come back? Your internal power struggles are not enough to convince me."

 

Of course it wasn't that easy. Kon let his arms sink to his sides, they were getting heavy thanks to the Kryptonite and this would most likely be a longer conversation. "I do have a few things to offer you. You can keep her" a nod in Kara's general direction "in your custody." Wayne didn't look convinced at all, but Kon wasn't finished.

 

"I will also answer all of your questions. Even if you choose to keep me here, most of our troops will leave on their own, since they only fight for the money we pay them. But those from Mars are here seeking for a new home with a better climate, so they will most likely stay if they're not prompted to leave. Whatever option you choose, I want to give you something."

 

No matter how hard he tried, the general was impossible to read for him. Kon couldn't tell at all if he was intrigued, curious or still just as suspicious as before. "And what would that be?" Kon took another deep breath. This was the crucial part of his plan. They needed to at least have some minimal trust in him. "A friend of mine has it. She is from Mars though and thus not immune to the bullets your security system fires. I promise you, she is absolutely harmless and you can keep whatever weapons you want with you."

 

The general contemplated for a short moment, then sent his children away with a curt nod. "Get some torches. Then tell them to leave one Martian girl through the security, but test her for weapons." They nodded back and quickly left the room.

 

So they had figured out Martians were weak to fire. Impressive. When nobody said anything for a few minutes, Wayne cut through the silence. "Let's start with the questions while we wait, shall we? Why do you speak English? Do you have mind-reading powers like the Martians?" Kon was surprised they had figured that out. Martians were generally hard to get a grasp on because they could both read and control minds. "No. I have been on Earth for about a year before the invasion began and learned your language the conventional way."

 

Dick and Cass then reappeared with burning torches, flanking a really nervous looking, green-skinned girl. She was clutching a stack of papers in her arms and looked like she'd rather be anywhere else, preferably with a lot less attention on her. Her gaze flickered nervously to Kon multiple times, but she stayed between Dick and Cass despite the fire weakening her.

 

"This is M'gann M'orzz. She came here without our knowledge and with no intention to fight, as she is still considered too young on Mars for that." Kon looked at her and gave her an encouraging smile so she could explain the main points herself.

 

"I just wanted to feel warm!" M'gann blurted out. "It's incredibly cold on Mars even underground and I just..." Looking around hastily, she realized this was not what the people listening wanted to hear. "A-Anyway, I can't fight, so they made me take care of enemy corpses left in inconvenient places, and I, um, thought just throwing them somewhere wasn't nice, so I buried them like Kon said you do... I'm not sure I got it right, but..."

 

She took a few steps forward and held the stack of papers out for Wayne to take. "It's a list... Where I buried all those whose names I could find out. Kon helped, too, but it's still incomplete..." she trailed off, expectantly looking at the general who only eyed her suspiciously. "Not poisoned. We checked", Cass supplied helpfully from behind M'gann.

 

Slowly, Wayne reached out and took the list. His eyes roamed over the paper incredibly fast, going through the first few pages in silence while all eyes were trained on him. Kon could see the exact second his focus zeroed in on one name on page five, inconspicuously written there just like all the other names with the date and place of the burial tightly fit next to it.

 

Still the general's face was as blank as before when he looked up. "All three of you will stay here under our conditions until we have verified at least some of this. If you have no objections to this, we will accept your previous offer of surrender for the moment."

 

The tension seeped out of Kon's body when he realized the hardest part of his plan was a success. "Thank you, sir."

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

Kon spent the next days convincing Wayne and the other important leaders of his honesty. He freely told them about his life on Krypton and his time on Earth, only leaving out the bits of Kryptonian technology he knew. Luckily, that wasn't much to begin with. He was a worker, after all.

 

Other than that, he toned down his relationship with Tim to mere friendship and never mentioned his name. Digging up what he did in Gotham would require a lot of time and while he was absolutely sure Wayne would be able to do it, he tried to direct his interest elsewhere in the questionings, making the Kents the main reason for his change of mind. Regret, grief and a desire for revenge were motivations well known to Bruce Wayne and Kon used that to the best of his abilities.

 

His plan worked out nearly perfectly. All aliens left Earth in peace, including M'gann, one tasked to bring the case of declaring Earth civilized to the Green Lantern Corps.

 

The next day, Kara was executed publicly. While he wasn't happy about it, Kon had known this would have to happen from the moment Kal died. Besides, he owed her nothing.

 

Another two days later, a representative of the Green Lanterns showed up, officially apologizing for the lack of interference from the corps and appointing Hal Jordan as Earth's first Green Lantern.

 

Kon only saw all of it happening on TV, locked in a cell with the blue K steadily sipping away his strength. That was the 'nearly' in the perfect. They had no intentions of letting him go. It had been feeble, but Kon had hoped he could leave and start over on another planet. Not conquering it or reviving the Kryptonian race, just... live. As someone like Conner Kent.

 

But the humans were not willing to risk him coming back stronger, even with the lanterns at their side, nor were they able to forgive him. Kon had murdered too many of them in cold blood, and he had turned himself over to their jurisdiction fully aware that this would most likely be the outcome. So when Dick slipped into his cell after a day with particularly few questions, he wasn't surprised.

 

"It's gonna be tomorrow." The young soldier didn't seem happy to delay this message to him and once again Kon wondered how Dick could possibly have gained his excellent reputation while being such a nice person.

 

He simply nodded. There wasn't much he had left to live for anyway, and the constant exposure to blue K had made him overall tired and exhausted. It was probably better to end this soon and without the pain the Kryptonite poisoning would bring. "You know... We have a tradition to fulfill dying people one last wish. Or at least give them one last meal of their choice. So, if there's anything...?"

 

Kon knew how stupid he was the moment he opened his mouth, but he couldn't stop himself. He had one last thing he wanted to do, and this was literally his last chance. "Your brother..." he started, tongue suddenly heavy and his voice raw.

 

"Will you let me see Tim?"

 

Dick looked honestly surprised at this. Of course, as far as he knew, Tim and Kon had never met, even though Tim had been at the base basically since Kon had surrendered they had never even talked.

 

"And ask him to bring a bag of doritos, okay?" At this, Dick's eyes widened in sudden understanding. He nodded. "I'll see what I can do about Tim. But I'm definitely getting you those doritos." Flashing him a last smile, Dick left Kon alone in his cell again.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

The next hours ticked by excruciatingly slow as absolutely nothing happened beside the slow movement of the clock. While Kon didn't move, his insides were torn apart a little more every minute with the fear that he might never see Tim again. At least Dick hadn't come back without him yet, so there was also a continually shrinking possibility of Tim deciding to show up (and Bruce allowing it) to cling to.

 

When the door finally opened, Kon thought his heart might stop from the mixture of extreme excitement and crippling anxiety. But sure enough, it was Tim who stepped through the door and closed it behind himself, face as unreadable as the one his adoptive father wore, left hand holding a bag of doritos.

 

Kon's heart began beating way too fast in his chest, but it had been so long since he'd been able to see the other boy. Tim's soft, shiny hair, his cute nose, his bright blue eyes, his lean, well-trained body only slightly hidden by the casual clothes he wore. Kon drank up all of it, memories flooding his mind, reminding him of the only time in his life where he'd been actually _happy_ , at least part of the day.

 

Tim remained standing by the door, throwing the doritos over to Kon. When he spoke, his voice was cold. "What do you want?"

 

That hurt. More than it should have. He should have known. Of course Tim would not be happy to see him. Of course Tim would hate him. He had every reason to. Still, Kon had never dared to acknowledge that fear. It cut too deep.

 

"I need to ask you a favor. I translated how you can grow Kryptonians and left enough samples to make it possible with the documents. I want you to have them." Tim's face contorted into a sneer. "Oh really? You think _I_ would grow more aliens? Forget it. I've killed just as many aliens and I have just as much sympathy for them as anyone else here. If you think I'd make an exception for you, you're dumber than I thought."

 

Kon shook his head. "I'm not expecting you to grow them. They would just get killed once someone found out about it. I just want you to hold onto them and keep them safe until the hatred has died down. You're the only human I know that had no reason to constantly lie to me. You're the only one I can trust. I know you're a good person. You can hate me and kill in a war, but you won't take away the chance to live from unborn children."

 

Despite having been provided a bed, Kon was sitting on the ground, meaning Tim was looking down on him as he stared motionlessly while the gears in his head were clearly working. When Tim concentrated like that, he could think extremely fast and complicated stuff, but tended to completely forget the world around him, a quality Kon had always found quite endearing. He'd said 'cute' the first time, but Tim had whacked him over the head with a pillow for that.

 

Coming back to reality, Tim let out a sigh. "Fine. But you have to answer me some questions as well." Kon let the grin he usually wore around Tim finally spread over his face. "Sure. I hid all the stuff back were you keep the box with the photos of your parents." Tim looked slightly offended that Kon had taken such personal information and hidden documents and samples beforehand like he had no doubts about Tim's answer at all, but still sat down beside Kon when the alien boy opened the doritos and padded the ground next to him.

 

"Did you..." Tim started, not looking at Kon. "Did you see Jason die?" It was an awkward way to phrase the question, but Kon guessed they had dug up the body and realized he was killed by heat vision, which he did not possess, ruling him out as the murderer. Still, he knew he wasn't free of guilt. "I did. We found him in one of our facilities and Kara killed him while I stood by and did nothing. I didn't know he was your brother back then, but... I guess that doesn't make it better." He should have added an apology in there, but somehow he knew it would only sound hollow and wrong.

 

Tim shook his head, but didn't comment. "Did he say anything?" Well... Slightly awkward, but Kon had promised to answer his questions. He took a dorito to stall a little. "He, um... He said 'Fuck you' to Kara and spit in her face..."

 

Surprisingly, this got a short laugh out of Tim. Well, more like a breathy snort kind of thing, but at this point, that was enough to basically melt Kon's heart to mush. He hadn't realized how much he had missed this... "Well" Tim murmured to himself, eyes closed and a fond smile on his face, "that _does_ sound like something Jason would say."

 

They finished the doritos in something close to what one would call 'comfortable silence' even though Kon noticed that Tim always reached into the bag right after Kon, probably to avoid contact and the memories of Tim deliberately brushing their hands together in various snack bags and bowls stung more than they had any right to.

 

Tim moved to stand up when the bag was empty, but Kon intercepted with his voice, not even grabbing his wrist like he wanted to when Tim was so intent on avoiding contact. "Please, can I ask you for one last favor?" Tim stopped mid-motion and looked at Kon expectantly, waiting for the favor before he said yes or no.

 

"Stay with me."

 

It didn't take long for Tim to contemplate this one and he simply sagged back down next to Kon again. Both of them slowly drifted off to sleep like that, physically only separated by an empty doritos bag, but with so much more between them that made even the slightest contact impossible.

 

When Kon woke up the next morning, he was alone. Though he could have sworn Tim had pressed a short kiss to his lips and murmured 'Goodbye, Conner' when he had left.

 

But maybe that had been a dream, or mere wishful thinking. He would never know.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for sticking with me until the end :) Every reader is appreciated ^-^


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